E-Mail
by Askre5
Summary: Donatello and Master Splinter switch roles, it's time for the student to teach the Master. One-Shot


**A/N:** Story originally written and posted on 03/01 2006

This story was written as a challenge to write a father/son interaction. I ended up writing this oneshot.

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 **Disclaimer and Legal stuff:**

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®, including Raphael®, Michelangelo®, Leonardo®, Donatello®, April O'Neil®, and Splinter® are registered trademarks of Viacom International Inc. Based on characters and comic books created by Peter A. Laird and Kevin B. Eastman.

I do not own them in other words.

This story is written purely as a homage to the Teenage Mutant Turtles and not meant for any commercial profit or infringement on copyright. This story will immediately be removed if Viacom International wishes so.

The story, is copyright © 2006 by Hermann Gunnar Sigurðsson (Askre).

 _Sum: Donatello and Master Splinter switch roles, it's time for the student to teach the Master._

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 **E-Mail**

Donatello flexed his fingers and stretched his arms. This was going to be challenging, the unspeakable had happened. The student was going to teach the master and the purple clad one wasn't as sure how well this class would go.

He took a deep breath and approached were Splinter sat ready and sat beside him.

"I appreciate that you took small amount of your time to help me with this, Donatello," Splinter addressed his son.

"No problem, Master now first you have start the program, it's the blue icon over there," Don pointed at the computer screen. Splinter didn't move an inch nor did the mouse pointer on the screen. "Any time now."

"Well, first I have to know how," the old rat said. Don slapped his forehead when realizing that he had forgot and then gestured to the mouse.

"You use the mouse Sensei, that's the small device here and is connected to the computer." Don the demonstrated how the mouse worked.

Splinter nodded and then did what his son had instructed, the e-mail program started and since Donny had installed cable access long ago they didn't need to bother about waiting for the computer to connect.

"Now you are just using my e-mail so you don't have to worry about creating a new account. Just click on the white envelope icon, that will prompt the program to ready a template for a new e-mail," Donatello instructed. Splinter did exactly what his son told him.

"So now I can write?" the old master asked curiously.

"Yeah you can, but it's good rule to put the e-mail address and the subject of the e-mail first then you can just hit the send button immediately after you finish writing, so what's the e-mail address," Don scratched his head when Splinter picked up a paper.

"Let's see now, Oakdrive West 9th street…"

"Uh, Master that's the street address, we need the e-mail address," Don interrupted his sensei. Splinter started at the paper and then glanced up at his son.

"What is the difference between an e-mail address and a street address," he asked. Donatello somehow managed to hide his shock and reminded himself that not everybody used the computer as much as him. In fact, nobody in the lair used it as much as he did.

"The street address is what you have there on the paper. That's good if you are writing a regular letter and sending it via regular snail…. Um the normal mail," the purple clad turtle began explaining. "E-mail address is basically a string that is formed with your username and the domain your e-mail server is from. They are connected with a symbol called 'at'. This helps the e-mail program to locate the domain of the person you wish to send your e-mail too; it first looks up the domain and then finds the user of that domain."

Splinter didn't show anything outwardly but Donatello knew he had to put it in simpler words, not that his master was stupid. Oh no he was very wise, but even the wise sometimes fall for the power of technobabble.

"I mean, the e-mail address is the name you use, or the company that you are trying to e-mail plus 'at' plus the domain name. So before we can send the e-mail we need to know the e-mail address for the company," the intelligent turtle explained. Splinter looked at the paper again but shook his head.

"I'm afraid there is noting of that sort you described here," he said and handed the paper to his son. Donatello quickly scanned it and confirmed that it contained no e-mail.

"We will simply look it up," he said grabbing the mouse. In quick strokes, he minimized the e-mail program window and opened the web browser. He picked out the company name in the search engine that always loaded as his 'homepage' and soon enough a father and son found themselves staring at the homepage of the company.

"Ok, I'll just see if it's under contact us," Don clicked the mouse pointer at the appropriate link.

Splinter could not but admire the speed his intelligent son executed these seemingly simple movements. The old sensei had long ago seen that when it came to technology, no matter how complicated, Donatello was at home. Even now when doing something as simple as sending an e-mail, or at least it had sounded simple enough, the purple clad ninja made it look so easy.

Donatello was quick to spot what they were looking for and pointed at it for him. Splinter nodded when seeing now what an e-mail address looked like. His son memorized it, opened up the e-mail program again and quickly typed it in.

"What do you put in this line below the address?" Splinter asked pointing at the CC. line.

"Nothing, you just ignore it. It's only if you want to send a copy of the e-mail to others as well but since we are only sending one e-mail you don't even need to bother with it. Now just the subject line left." Don clicked the mouse so they could write in the subject. Splinter wrote it on the keyboard, and Donatello had to stifle a giggle when his master only used two fingers to do so and it took him a moment to write this single line.

"And now we can write the letter itself," Don clicked the large white space on the e-mail window.

Splinter began typing and the turtle realized this could take a while. Typing with two fingers was an obvious sign of somebody not used to write with a keyboard and hadn't learned to use all fingers to do it. Don looked at one of his three fingered hands. Using all his six digits, he was just as fast at typing as a human with ten. In fact it was so natural for him that he didn't even need light to see the keyboard, used to the feel of it and knew exactly where each key was.

Don wondered if he could teach his sensei to type with all eight fingers. That would surely speed up the writing process that was going very slowly.

"Sensei if you want to speed up how you write, you can try writing with all your fingers." He decided at least to try. He quickly demonstrated the correct position of the hands over the keyboard and then demonstrated. His fingers flew around typing almost at a warp speed. "The key is to know where each letter is, memorize their position and then you really use the keyboard blindingly as you never look at it but watch the letters appear on the screen. If you make an error, you simply quickly erase it and continue."

Splinter smiled at this switch of roles, the son teaching the father. However, when it came to the computer he was no longer the master. That was his intelligent student. So the old sensei did what Master Donatello had instructed, first he began looking at the keyboard and memorized where each letter was. Then he positioned his hands and began typing. He was slow at first, made errors but did just what Don had told him. Erased the mistakes and continued, gradually he picked up speed though at the moment he didn't go half as fast as the turtle had. With this new technique, the letter was soon finished.

"All right, now just use the mouse to click on the send button and the computer will do the rest," Don said, Splinter did so and that was it. They were done; things had gone smoother than the turtle had hoped. But then again, Splinter wasn't Mikey.

"I thank you again, my son for showing me how this works." The aged master stood up from his chair and so did Donatello. They both bowed for each other. "I am honored to have learned from such skillful sensei."

"Uh Master Splinter, I'm no sensei." Don was surprised to hear Splinter call him that. The old rat simply smiled at him.

"Ah but you are, I am maybe a teacher of ninjitsu and have taught you and your brothers the secret arts of it. However, when it comes to technology I am no longer the Master. There I must bow for those who are my superiors in that field, in this case is you," Splinter explained. Don folded his arms still staring unsure at his father.

"Um we were just sending a simple e-mail," he said.

"It is simple for you my son for you have long since mastered it, as well how to write it faster. Had I not had you here to show me what to do, I would not have been able to do it. At least not without much trials and error and even with ending up calling for help in the end. Do you not remember your first Bo lesson?" Splinter had now both hands on his walking stick and stared attentively at his son.

"Ah yes, I remember you saying I would start on simple and easy techniques. I remember thinking you were nuts to call them simple, I lost count on how many times I banged my head with it." Don shrugged but then realized what his Master was talking about.

"But I could have been much more hurt and need instructions anyway if I had been learning it all alone, I hadn't mastered it yet so what would be simple for you was of course not simple for me." The turtle grinned.

"Indeed, but I have no doubts that one day you and your brothers will be able to call yourselves masters of ninjitsu," the old sensei said, he then gestured towards the entrance of Donatello's room.

"And speaking of which it's soon time for evening practice," he mentioned.

"Yes Master, I'll be along shortly I will have to turn off the computer first," Don said and they both bowed once more for each other. "And Masters Splinter, I have no doubt that you will master the e-mail."

"Thank you, Master Donatello for believing in this old student," his sensei said and walked out of the room with still with a wide smile on his face.

 _Master Donatello, yeah master of the computer._ The turtle chuckled and sat down in front of his device and began the process to shut it off.

 **The End**

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 **A/N:** It was left intentionally ambiguous who exactly Splinter was e-mailing, leaving it up to the reader to decide for themselves. My favorite theory though was that it was a complaint to a cheese factory


End file.
